Automobile Engineering

Biography

Biography: Diana Reich

Abstract

To provide reliable and valid findings while prospective evaluations in the automotive context highly realistic driving environments are recommended. Nowadays, in-car devices are mainly evaluated with driving simulator experiments followed by real car driving studies. Driving simulators are characterized by high internal validity, but lack regarding ecological validity. Real car driving experiments are ecologically valid, but difficult to standardize, more time consuming and expensive. One economizing suggestion is to implement more immersive driving environment when applying driving simulator experiments. This paper discusses research investigating the influence of immersive and non-immersive experimental set ups while performing the Lane Change Task (LCT; ISO, 2008). The task consists of a sequence of lane change maneuvers while driving with a fixed speed of 60 km/h on a three-lane road. Hereby, the immersive mode of visualization (Oculus Rift©) was characterized by stereoscopic 3D view, stereo car sound, 360° head tracking, and approximately 100° field of view. The non-immersive mode of visualization (Laptop) was characterized by 2D view, stereo car sound, no head tracking, and a 75° field of view. Twenty participants took part in the comparative study. Subjective data show advantages regarding presence experience when performing the LCT with the Oculus Rift©, but affect adversely cognitive workload, situation awareness and simulator sickness, compared to a non-immersive PC set up. To sum up, findings of the comparative study lead us to conclude that immersive driving environments are useful to ensure a more realistic impression of the situation, but need to be improved regarding technical issues.